IT’S HAY SEASON: Gary Mazoki, of Palermo, captured this farmer in the middle of haying season.
IMMATURE: Joan Chaffee, of Clinton, photographed this immature bald eagle scoping out the lake.
BLUEBIRD: Tina Richard, of Clinton, snapped this bluebird perched on a tree branch.
(NAPSI)—According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in 10 Americans can expect to be diagnosed with diabetes. If you or someone you care about is ever among them, you may be surprised to learn that one of the most important ways your doctor can help detect the condition is with an eye exam.
That’s because a serious complication of diabetes is diabetic retinopathy. The disease causes damage to the blood vessels in the back of the eye. It can affect up to 80 percent of patients living with diabetes and is the leading cause of blindness amongst working age adults. It can affect up to 80 percent of people with diabetes. Diabetic retinopathy has no early warning signs, and symptoms such as blurred vision do not occur until diabetic retinopathy is in an advanced state.
Fortunately, early detection and timely treatment can reduce the risk of vision loss due to diabetic retinopathy by 95%. Primary Care physicians now have access to a simple and affordable solution called the Welch Allyn® RetinaVue® Care delivery model, available from Henry Schein. The RetinaVue care delivery model is a turnkey solution that consists of three core components, including the RetinaVue 700 Imager, RetinaVue Network software for secure transfer of patient images and Professional Medical Services to analyze and diagnose patient images and networks the doctors already have. The imager’s ease of use and lightweight, portable design make it well-suited for use across clinics, at the bedside or even in the home. In a fast and non-invasive procedure, your primary care physician can take a photo of your retina and send it to an ophthalmologist to analyze the blood vessels there. Thanks to this technology, you won’t even need to leave the doctor’s office and may not need to make another appointment with the ophthalmologist, although doctors do recommend that anyone living with diabetes get an annual retinal exam.
Managing your diabetes is the best way to lower your risk of diabetic retinopathy, advises the National Institutes of Health. That means keeping your blood sugar levels in a healthy range. You can do this by:
Treatments include injections of drugs that can slow or even reverse the damage; laser treatment to shrink retinal blood vessels; and a type of eye surgery called vitrectomy that replaces the vitreous humor with another clear fluid.
For further facts on diabetic retinopathy, you can visit the National Institutes of Health at www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/diabetic-retinopathy. Doctors and patients can find more information on the RetinaVue care delivery model at www.retinavue.com.
A Hood’s ice cream truck makes a delivery at C.P. Hallee’s Market on Summer St. Note the Shell sign on top. (photo courtesy of Hallee family album)
by Roland D. HalleeWell, we’ve been down the whole length of Water St. Now we’ll move a little to the west, and take a stroll down Summer St.
The place of note is at the corner of Summer and Sherwin streets, and the home of former Maine Governor Clinton A. Clauson, who died in office on December 30, 1959. He was the 66th governor of Maine.
I remember that day well. It was in the early morning hours, and I had a paper route at the time. My younger brother and I had just received our papers for the day, and getting ready to embark on our daily route, when a truck from the Morning Sentinel came around, and the occupants took them away from us. At the age of 12 years old, I didn’t quite know what to do. They later returned with a newer edition, announcing the passing of the governor as the page one banner headline.
The home was a large, stately, white building with a wrap-around porch that faced both of those streets. However, in recent decades, the home has been altered into apartment units, and the magnificent porch has been removed. A shame in my estimation.
Summer Street, at one time, was the “elite” street of the south end before the construction and extension of Silver Street, and the homes to many prominent Waterville citizens.
On the right side of the street, near the intersection of Redington St., was the home of the Rancourt family, at 9 Summer St. They owned Rancourt’s Market, on Monument Street, in Winslow.
On the south side of Redington St., on the corner was the home and office of Dr. Breard. That home burned several years ago and has been replaced by a single family home.
On the east side of the street was the home of the Boulet family, who owned a lumber business in Fairfield.
Now, one significant place we have not visited sits a little off the beaten path. Located on Veteran Court, between Summer and Water streets, was Bolduc’s Bakery. Boy, how those early mornings greeted us with the aroma of fresh baked bread wafting through the air.
Located on the corner of Veteran Court, was another stately home, surrounded by a tall hedge. I never did know who lived there, but back in those days, I figured it must be someone rich.
Going back to the west side, located where the parking lot is now for New Dimension Federal Credit Union, was Pomerleau’s Market. The rest of the street to the intersection with Gold Street was lined with single family and multi-unit apartment houses.
On the corner of Summer and Gold was the location of Larry’s Variety, owned by Larry Bouchard, which later was named Ron’s Variety, after its new owner, Ron Gilbert.
As we proceed south along Summer St., opposite Kimball St., was C. P. Hallee’s Market and Shell gas station. That store, which overlooked the South End Arena, was owned by my father, Conrad P. Hallee. Like all the other markets in the area, it was kind of a general store with varied sundry items, and a meat counter, and, of course, the gas pumps in front.
The store was abandoned with the outbreak of World War II, when my dad joined the Army. The old building was still standing in the mid-’60s, because I used to walk past it everyday on my way to St. Joseph’s School for Boys. That spot is now overgrown with vegetation.
The rest of the street was lined with single family and multi-unit buildings, all the way to Grove St., and Pine Grove Cemetery.
One of them, located on the west side, was home to the Bolduc family, which produced many of Waterville High School’s star hockey players, including Dan Bolduc, who went on to play in the National Hockey League with the Detroit Red Wings, and later with the Hartford Whalers.
Summer Street wasn’t considered part of The Plains, setting on a little higher ground, but played a very significant role in the south end as a whole. The neighborhood, like Water St., was inhabited mostly my Canadian immigrants and their families.
Marcelle Meyer
by Peter CatesPianist Marcelle Meyer (1897-1958) was one of a superbly gifted group of pianists born between 1880 and the beginning of World War I, among whom other personal favorites include Artur Schnabel, Artur Rubinstein, Wilhelm Backhaus, Wilhelm Kempff, Edwin Fischer, Eduard Erdmann, Robert and Gaby Casadesus, Walter Gieseking, Rudolf Serkin, Shura Cherkassky, Oscar Levant, Dame Myra Hess, Sir Clifford Curzon, Sviatoslav Richter, Clara Haskil, Monique Haas, Claudio Arrau, Wanda Landowska, Friedrich Wuehrer, Cutner Solomon, Vladimir Horowitz, Cyril Smith.
The reason for this shopping list is to provide names of keyboard artists whose recordings can be found on Youtube so that the hopefully curious can indulge themselves and lead others, thus increasing the market for classical music which has shrunk to even lower levels (down from roughly 30 percent in previous decades to two per cent in this age of attention deficit disorder ignorance).
Born in France, Meyer started lessons at the age of five with her older sister Germaine and entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of 11 for further studies with the legendary pianists Alfred Cortot and Marguerite Long.
She drew the attention of composers Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky and Claude Debussy, who coached her in the interpretation of his Preludes just before he died in 1918.
Meyer championed the works of several other 20th century composers both in France and elsewhere in Europe.
But her finest legacy might lie in her revival of interest in a handful of baroque and 18th century composers such as Bach, Scarlatti, Couperin, Rameau, Haydn and Mozart when she began recording their music during the 1940s.
I have been recently listening to a 17 CD set of Marcelle Meyer, Complete Studio Recordings 1925-1957 (Documents 600209) which can be bought inexpensively from online vendors. It features her playing of the above mentioned composers along with Emannuel Chabrier, Rossini, Schubert, Spanish composers Oscar Espla, Isaac Albeniz and Manuel de Falla, Richard Strauss, Darius Milhaud, and Francis Poulenc.
She played with the most extraordinary emotional warmth, delicacy and inspired one on one connection with the listener. Some of her most beautiful playing was found in the records of Bach, Scarlatti and Rameau where an undercurrent of melodic line was conveyed which eluded other pianists.
On November 17, 1958, Marcelle Meyer died suddenly, at the much too young age of 61, of a heart attack while playing piano at her sister Germaine’s apartment.
Youtube contains a 1956 broadcast of her phenomenal rendition of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the underrated Volkmar Andrae conducting the Suisse Romande Orchestra in Geneva, Switzerland.
by Gary KennedyFREEDOM is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants, without hindrance or restraint. Also, the absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government. Also, freedom is the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved. Freedom is traditionally understood as independence of the arbitrary will of someone else. Freedom can be defined in a great number of ways.
I have been putting pen to this very topic for years for The Town Line newspaper. Every year I think there is no more I can write but as I am an ardent reader I find a life time full of what could be defined as freedoms. However, it comes to mind that the readers of my articles are now many. We have a tremendously diverse community, many of which are unfamiliar with our country and its freedoms and what they mean to us. A good example would be the Philippine population is the largest minority in Maine, followed by the Somali immigration. That being said, I could go back to the first article I wrote 20 years ago because it was a reminder and a teaching, too.
During a recent survey of what the Fourth of July depicted, some of the responses were off the wall. So every year I feel we must remind all people what this holiday is, in fact, all about. It might appear on an immigration test. The first part of my narrative defines basic freedom but says nothing about how it came about, nor does it discuss the ongoing struggle we face and sometimes take for granted.
Eugene Delacroix did the great work La Liberte. It is a beautiful work of art but symbolic. Lincoln never stood in the fray of battle as depicted in the work. However, the battle for freedom for the most part could have looked a lot like the art. John Trumbull’s Depiction of the 4th in 1818 is fantastic also, John was also a veteran.
The birth of American Independence was actually voted on July 2, but the holiday was to be celebrated on the fourth. The Declaration of Independence was adopted by our Continental Congress, for the most part written by Thomas Jefferson. America was born, at least on paper. The 13 original colonies served their political ties to Great Britain.
We here in Maine take a lot of pride in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, an American poet from Portland, who wrote such works as Paul Revere’s Ride and the song of Hiawatha and Evangeline, to name just a couple. There is a statue of him in Congress Square, in Portland.
Long story short, the Revolutionary War was fought against Great Britain. The war began on April 19, 1775, and lasted to September 3, 1783. The turning point in the war was considered to be the battle of Saratoga. The war encompassed 165 battles with 291,557 American deaths and 671,846 wounded. It is estimated that the British suffered only 25,000 casualties. The French were our allies and they lost a couple of million souls. The French also gave us the Statue of Liberty in 1885. It took from 1875 to 1884 to build. History has shown France to be a great friend and ally. However, the politics of today shows us different pictures of friends and allies. Sad but the world is not in a very good place right now.
All that being said we need to strive once again for a better world, where all can live in Freedom and Peace. Have a happy and safe Fourth of July my friends. Share what you have with those in need. Be very careful with the fireworks. Make this a time of thoughtfulness and reflection. Save a special prayer for those who are suffering in other countries and fighting for the independence that we hold dear. May they also celebrate freedom one day. Happy Fourth and God bless.
A fawn at the Duck Pond Wildlife Center. (photo by Jayne Winters)
by Jayne WintersAlthough spring always brings admissions of injured, sick and newly-orphaned wildlife to the Wildlife Care Center, May and June are also the months that find Don and his volunteers releasing rehabbed critters back to the fields and woods where they belong. The animals have depended upon human assistance to regain their health or simply mature to an age where they can face the world on their own. Release sites are selected in advance and must meet Don’s criteria: a good distance from houses and highways and readily available water sources.
Seven of nine deer have been successfully released, all together in one area. Assistants with a couple of blankets – and nets on hand if necessary – helped Don herd them toward the transport trailer and seven happened to run in as a group. Don returned home to get the remaining buck who readily entered the trailer, but was unwilling to leave it at the release site. Not wanting to stress it any further, Don left the trailer door open and upon returning a couple hours later, found the deer had come out but was lying on the ground, apparently unable to get up. Sadly, the buck had to be euthanized, likely due to an unknown injury. One more deer remains to be captured and released.
The three bobcat kittens, now a little over a year old, will be released next week individually and at different locations. Despite eating well and thriving last summer, they were too small to survive on their own in the fall, so were kept over the winter and are now ready to venture out into their natural habitat. Although somewhat accustomed to human interaction, the kittens have maintained their defensive characteristics and continue to be cautious. It shouldn’t take them long to adapt to life away from the Care Center. The female weighs about 20 pounds while her two brothers are a little heavier at probably 25 Pounds. They’re lean, mean fighting machines!
Two opossums and two flying squirrels have also been released, all in one area. This was an unusual year for flying squirrels as there were only two admissions, not the usual 40-50. Of course, there are many months ahead of us! The three remaining foxes will be released within the next couple of weeks. All raccoons have been transferred to another rehabber, so the focus will be on the expected summer and fall admissions.
The day I was visiting with Don, he asked if I had my camera – he had a young weasel in the incubator, so of course, I had to get some photos! It’s being fed formula several times a day and is probably only a couple of weeks old as its eyes aren’t open yet. When I returned later in the afternoon, four 1-2 days-old mice or rats (so small it’s hard to be sure) had been admitted. Never a dull moment at the Wildlife Care Center.
Don continues to keep admissions and long-term residents at a limited number by transferring many rescued critters to other rehabbers who have generously offered to assist in their care. Please check these websites to see if there is a rehabber closer to you to help keep critter care at Duck Pond more manageable: https://www.mainevetmed.org/wildlife-rehabilitation or https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fish-wildlife/wildlife/living-with-wildlife/orphaned-injured-wildlife/index.html.
– Donald Cote operates Duck Pond Wildlife Care Center on Rte. 3 in Vassalboro. It is a non-profit state permitted rehab facility supported by his own resources & outside donations. Mailing address: 1787 North Belfast Ave., Vassalboro ME 04989 TEL: (207) 445-4326. PLEASE NOTE THE PRIOR wildlifecarecenter EMAIL ADDRESS IS NOT BEING MONITORED AT THIS TIME.
Crane fly
by Roland D. HalleeHave you ever gone to bed on a warm summer night, and seen this thing flying around that resembles a large mosquito?
It happens to me all the time at camp.
Sitting up in bed, grabbing the book I’m reading, or possibly a magazine for some light and quick reading. And, there it is, buzzing around the light, and becoming extremely annoying. It looks like a giant mosquito.
One of my relatives recently posted a photo on Facebook of that exact same insect on her arm. In the posting, she notes, “it’s a good thing I’m not afraid of spiders.” Wait a minute, this insect has six legs. All arachnids have eight legs. That is not a spider.
Well, I quickly fired off an email to my biologist contact at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, along with the photo. It didn’t take long to receive a reply.
His response was, “this is a cranefly, a true fly in the order Diptera, and probably from the family Tipulidae. There are over 1,500 species of Craneflies in North America and possibly several hundred in Maine. The adults are harmless, some species not feeding at all, and some species feeding predominantly on nectar.”
In colloquial speech, the cranefly is sometimes called Daddy Longlegs, a term also used to describe opiliones, or harvestmen, both of which are arachnids. The larvae of the cranefly are known commonly as leatherjackets.
Craneflies are found worldwide, though individual species usually have limited ranges.
The adult crane fly, like mentioned earlier, resembles an oversized mosquito, and has stilt-like legs that are deciduous, easily coming off the body.
The adult female usually contains mature eggs as she emerges from her pupa, and often mates immediately if a male is available. Adult craneflies have a lifespan of 10 – 15 days. Cranefly larvae (leatherjackets) have been observed in many habitat types on dry land and in water. They are cylindrical in shape, but taper toward the front end, and the head capsule is often retracted into the thorax. Larvae may eat algae, microflora, and living or decomposing plant matter, including wood. Some are predatory.
The sole purpose of the adult crane fly is to mate and, for the females, to lay eggs for next spring’s crop of flies. Crane flies are harmless to handle, so the next time one makes its way indoors, simply cup it gently to release outdoors. Think of it as a romantic gesture.
Some lavae species consume some living aquatic insects and invertabrates, which could potentially include mosquito larvae. Many, however, because of their short lifespan, never eat at all.
Numerous other common names have been applied to the crane fly. Many of the names are more or less regional in the U.S., including mosquito hawk, mosquito eater, gallinipper, and gollywhopper.
There are other misconceptions about the crane fly.
There is an enduring urban legend that crane flies are the most venomous insects in the world, but have no ability to administer the venom; this is not true. The myth likely arose due to their being confused with the cellar spider as they are also informally called “daddy longlegs”, and although the arachnid does possess venom, it is not especially potent.
Despite widely held beliefs that adult crane flies prey on mosquito populations, the adult crane fly is anatomically incapable of killing or consuming other insects.
Crane flies are generally thought as agricultural pests. Since the late 1900s they have become invasive in the United States. The larvae have been observed on many crops, including vegetables, fruits, cereals, pasture, lawn grasses and ornamental plants.
Should you kill crane flies? Adult crane flies are harmless and do not feed on blood. However, crane fly larva, known as leatherjackets, can cause damage to your lawn. You can kill the flies immediately with an insecticide or you can take preventative measures by killing their larva.
First, you must use home remedies with essential oils to prevent adult crane flies. It will also prevent them from laying their eggs in your garden or lawn. There are many essential oils that you can use to make your treatment, the most common being lavender, and peppermint oil.
It is harmless to humans, can be a nuisance to agriculture, but I wish it would stop reading over my shoulder.
How many Major League baseball teams are there in California?
White matter refers to areas of the central nervous system that are mainly made up of myelinated axons, also called tracts.Long thought to be passive tissue, white matter affects learning and brain functions, modulating the distribution of action potentials, acting as a relay and coordinating communication between different brain regions.
(NAPSI)—For the world’s leading neuroscientists, unlocking the brain’s capacity to stimulate neural plasticity has become something of a Holy Grail.
That’s because enhancing plasticity is perhaps the most important step towards repairing central nervous system (CNS) damage. In fact, it can have a profound impact across multiple neurological functions, including improving motor, sensory and cognitive abilities such as memory.
People marvel at how children are able to learn things so quickly and easily. This ability is mediated by their brains’ nimble neural plasticity. Neuroscientists once believed that neuroplasticity manifested predominately during childhood. However, research in the mid-20th century demonstrated that many aspects of the brain can be altered, even in adulthood. Still, the developing brain has a significantly higher degree of plasticity than the adult brain.
The human brain consists of enormous networks of neurons. They act as messengers that use electrical impulses and chemical signals to transmit information between different areas of the brain, and between the brain and the nervous system. Even a very simple task, such as standing or sitting, typically involves millions of interconnected neurons. Damage to these interconnected systems can be catastrophic.
Enhancing plasticity could be a potential treatment option for any condition where there is extensive damage to CNS tissue. Enhancing plasticity results in ‘axonal sprouting’ – a process where surviving neurons produce fine collateral sprouts from the intact remaining axons. In other words, healthy surviving neurons become fortified and form new connections in areas of the brain or spinal cord where most neurons are damaged or have died.
“Regeneration of damaged neurons, along with sprouting, together lead to plasticity,” says Dr. Jerry Silver, a professor in the Department of Neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine and co-inventor and advisor at NervGen Pharma. “Medical science already knows how to promote axonal regeneration, which involves getting neurons to grow across an injury site. But what’s also needed to ensure significant recovery is sprouting.”
Dr. Silver discovered the novel peptide—NVG-291—which has been shown in animal studies to promote plasticity.
NervGen is developing NVG-291, the novel drug candidate that could revolutionize treatment for conditions associated with central nervous system damage, including Alzheimer’s disease. It promises to be a world’s first—a drug candidate that appears to be able to unlock the central nervous system’s ability to repair itself. Medical science will learn if NVG-291 is a prospective wonder drug by 2023 when Phase 2 clinical trials are expected to be well underway.
Existing drugs can only limit or contain the extent of the damage that is the root cause of the world’s hardest to treat neurodegenerative diseases. For instance, existing drug therapies that target Alzheimer’s disease – the most pervasive of them all – have only succeeded in marginally decelerating its progression. This offers little comfort to the afflicted or to their loved ones.
“NVG-291 presents a new paradigm for treating Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dr. George Perry, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and member of NervGen’s Alzheimer’s Clinical Advisory Board. “Nobody else in medical research is taking this same approach. It is essentially enabling the brain to repair itself.”
Water St., circa 1940s, looking north. The Esso sign is where Bilodeau’s Garage was located. (photo courtesy of colby.edu/mapping-waterville/)
by Roland D. HalleeThis week we will continue our tour of The Plains. Last week we left off at Gold Street. From this point on it gets pretty simple.
One of the first buildings you will come across on the east side of Water St. is the original home of Jean Baptiste Mathieu, presumably the first permanent FrenchCanadian settler in Waterville and his wife, Sarah Dostie, who came here from Beauceville, Québec, in 1827, and settled in their Water Street home in 1831. The rest of the street on that side is made up of single family homes and many duplex and apartment buildings.
However, on the west side, from Gold St., there was Bilodeau’s Service Station where you could buy your gas, and have your car repaired (That building is now part of KVCAP’s campus).
Next , setting a little ways back, was the Notre Dame Church, on the second floor of the building, and Notre Dame Parochial School on the ground floor and basement.
Next came the South End Café. That establishment was famous for their fried clams. My dad would sometimes come home from working the 3 – 11 shift at Hollingsworth & Whitney Paper mill, in Winslow, later Scott Paper Co., with some clams. We could only watch, if we were still awake at that hour.
Next door to the café was Gabe’s Barber Shop. Back when I was in the sixth and seventh grades, I attended St. Joseph’s School for Boys on Summer St., between Kimball and Preston streets (where the Notre Dame Church now stands). It was either every week, or every other week, on Wednesday, my father would give me 25-cents, and I would walk to Gabe’s Barber Shop during lunch, for a haircut. A couple of times, when I felt I didn’t need a haircut, I would skip the trip and pocket the quarter. My dad, somehow, would always know.
Another thing about Gabe Giroux, who was a large, rotund man, was that he was the only Republican, that I can remember, who was ever elected to the Waterville Board of Aldermen, from Ward 7. That was before Waterville went to a council form of government.
A little further down was Dick’s Market, now closed, but still stands, with the sign in front, but is actually the location of Stripes-A-Lot.
From there, on the corner of Halde St., was a house that was rumored to have an active still in the basement during Prohibition. That was proved to be true when the home was demolished and a “secret” room was discovered in the basement.
Next to the house, was a Waterville Fire Department substation. Across the street was the Second Baptist Church, which is still there today. More homes lined the street until the corner of Grove St. At the corner of the south side of Grove St., was LaVerdiere’s Market, a little larger store than the small markets.
Museum In The Street plaque of the South End Arena.
Now we’re going to return to Gold St., and the old Notre Dame Church, which is now KVCAP. Looking west, and across King St., was the South End Arena, an Olympic-size outside ice skating and hockey rink, where many of Waterville High School’s star hockey players honed their skills. We were affectionally – or not – known as the South End Rink Rats. Many varsity games were also played there before the construction of the Alfond Arena on the Colby College campus.
Many days and nights were spent at that arena. During the winter, it wasn’t unusual for me to come home from school, drop the books, grab the hockey equipment, and head out to the rink. The two years I attended St. Joseph’s School, it was common for me to bring my hockey equipment to school, and go directly to the rink after school, and not return home until after dark.
During my high school years, many evenings were spent, after hockey, to participate in public skating with the girls, after which we scraped the ice surface by hand, and “flooded” the rink after it closed at 10 p.m.
The founder, and caretaker of the rink, which was on his property, was Waterville Police Captain Arthur Gagne. To those of us who took advantage of the facility, it wasn’t South End Arena, it was “Art’s.” Gagne took care of the rink, mostly from his own money, with the assistance of a small stipend from the city. He also was the chaperone, and he had a zero tolerance policy for any unacceptable behavior. We all loved “Art”.
We have now seen an overview of what it looked like on Water Street in the 1950s and 1960s. Now, I must confess: we are talking about 60-plus years ago. The mind doesn’t quite remember everything, so I’m sure I have omitted some places. My apologies to those I missed.
Louisa Adams
by Peter CatesThe sixth former First Lady, Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams (1775-1852) was born in London, England, and was one of only two first ladies not born in the U.S., the other being Melania Trump who entered the world in 1970 in Yugoslavia.
Louisa was also born illegitimately; her mother was referred to by her grandson, the noted historian and cynic Henry Adams (1838-1918), as “one of the deeper mysteries of metaphysical theology.”
In America’s First Ladies, Christine Sadler describes Louisa as having “the delightful chore of making a parlor out of the vast East Room of the White House in which her mother-in-law had strung the family wash to dry 24 years earlier.”
Like Dolly Madison, she was quite the gracious hostess (although not the very bubbly social butterfly that Dolly was) and married to a president who preferred to be left alone in his study, more about his personality coming soon.
At first Louisa was not accepted by her mother-in-law Abigail Adams, but the older woman soon found they both had a lot in common, especially having very strong opinions which the gentlemen around them found at times unbearable, and they got along quite well.
Unlike her mother-in-law, Louisa was prone to depression and suffered from frail health.
J. Quincy Adams
I now shift the focus to Louisa’s husband John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) who served one term as president from 1825 to 1829.
By many scholars, including his detractors, Quincy Adams is considered one of the smartest to hold office with a very high IQ. Several of his predecessors recognized these qualities and he served at diplomatic posts in England, France, the Netherlands, Prussia and Russia. In addition he was fluent in Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Russian.
Socially, he could be a stiff arrogant prig and really did not enjoy being with most people, much like James Madison .
Interestingly, after leaving the White House, Q was elected by his home state of Massachusetts to the House of Representatives where his popularity was far greater than as chief executive. His arguably finest moment, as one of the handful of leaders unwaveringly opposed to slavery, was giving a speech defending the slaves who took over the Amistad ship transporting them from Africa to the United States and getting them acquitted and allowed to return to their homeland.
He served in Congress for the remainder of his life where in 1848, at the age of 81, he suffered a stroke while giving a speech in the chamber.
Q was carried into his private office where he died in the presence of his wife and others, including the Illinois Representative Abraham Lincoln.
Louisa outlived her husband by four years and died of a heart attack in 1852 at the age of 77.
Q and Louisa were believed to have married on the rebound, as both had suffered broken hearts in a previous relationship.
Q amassed a collection of different translations of the Bible.
While president, he bathed naked every morning at 5 a.m. in the Potomac River no matter what season of the year.
The above-mentioned grandson recounts an incident in his autobiography The Education of Henry Adams when, in sixth grade, he told his mother that he didn’t feel like going to school; whereupon grandfather, who was referred to by all his grandchildren as the President, took the lad firmly by the hand, walked him two miles to the schoolhouse never saying a word, escorted him into the classroom and sat him down at his desk.
The President then returned in the afternoon and repeated the procedure. Grandson never complained again.
Ironically, Quincy’s vice-president was South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) who was an unwavering supporter of slavery and a “White South.”